What would people say?
by LadyPalma
Summary: After they had broken up Effie sees Seneca with someone else and realize the terrible mistake she had made... But is it too late now? Written as a response for a prompt given on Tumblr.


**Original prompt: Can you do like a seneffie prompt where one of them gets jealous when the other's getting chat up or something?:)**

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><p><strong>What would people say? <strong>

Even that year the Victory Tour culminated in a superb night at President Snow's mansion and perhaps that one for the 73th Hunger Games was even a bigger celebration than the ones of the previous years. More food, more music, more people. Effie Trinket spent the first hour having little talks with acquaintances or soon to be ones, receiving compliments for her fancy dress and smiling in every direction – especially the camera that was filming the event. And yet that smile felt somehow heavy on her lips, until it suddenly disappeared completely from her face. Apparently she had every reason to be happy: she didn't have to play nanny for Haymitch since he had refused to go and people were probably for the first time in four years of escorting noticing her, but the truth is that she wasn't happy and even if she would have never admitted it a loud, it was clearly Seneca Crane's fault.

"_You are really funny, Aurelia… And what's worse for men like me, you are beautiful too_" the head gamemaker said in a flirtatious tone and with a genuine laughter a few steps from where she was.

That laughter was exactly what made Effie froze in her place and those words were the ones to steal her smile away: a laughter that she wasn't the one to cause, words that were said to another woman, a woman that wasn't her. Furthermore, if that wasn't enough yet, she didn't fail to notice the proximity between the two nor the way she was touching his arm and the fact that her face was more and more close to his.

The escort of 12 remained there still for a while, unable to move, and only realized what was happening when four eyes gaze at her direction. But she met only two of them, the blue ones owned by Seneca, and it was a eloquent and also painful meeting. It only lasted some seconds though, and then he turned his attention back on that Aurelia and she eventually found her strength to move.

As a matter of fact she felt like running in that moment, but ladylike as she was, she just increased the speed of her pace, leaving as fast as she could that part of the place. She didn't care too much about the people who tried to stop her, despite the polite smile she hinted to everyone and the quick excuses she managed to give. She kept on walking on her high heels, crossing the whole room in just about a couple of minutes. Just then, thinking to be far enough, she allowed herself to relax a bit and release a breath that she didn't know she had been holding. But stopping then was probably a mistake because the sentimental blow of the previous vision hit her in that apparent pause of peace.

Suddenly not even she wasn't smiling anymore, but she actually was about to cry.

Yes, that was the answer to the most likely question: yes, she was jealous. Somehow she felt that after countless years of knowing each other, almost two years of being lovers and his open confession of love to her, she had actually rights to be jealous. But yet if she really had had it once, she was also well aware that she lost it when to his "I love you" she answered "we can't" and with a more terrific addition "what would people say?". Even if he was the one to formally break up with her just a month before, she had been the one to put an end to their relationship with those answers.

He was hurt of course, but that hurt couldn't justify his behavior with that silly brunette, could it?

"Effie! Effie!"

For a moment the woman thought she was just imagining that voice, perhaps a hallucination overlapping the echoes of the too recent memory in her head. However, when he heard again that well known voice calling out her name becoming more and more closer, she couldn't deny it anymore. It took just one look behind to confirm her suspect, noticing a familiar figure with a peculiar black beard and two shining blue eyes moving right toward her.

Luckily for her, this time she didn't find herself frozen in place, on the contrary she felt ready to walk away again. Unluckily for her, he was faster and closer than she had considered and before she could actually move, he had grabbed gently but firmly her arm, obliging her to remain with him.

"Oh, Seneca Crane! How are you?" she exclaimed a loud with a fake cheerful voice, turning to face him, but glancing around to see if people were looking at them "Let me go" hissed then, still refusing to look at him, while trying to struggle from his grip.

_The same careful Effie Trinket_, he thought divided between tenderness and irritation. A smile anyway appeared on his lips, as the grip around her arm tightened and his other hand reached her waist.

"Can I have this dance, Miss Trinket?" he asked with a trace of amusement in his voice.

Before she could answer, he had already led her on the dance floor and, since Seneca had joined it for the first time that night, most of the eyes were focused on him. Except for the ones that were following the victor of the year or the always favorite Finnick Odair, of course.

"Let me go…" she tried again, attempting again to free herself.

"And why would I, Effie? It's rude to interrupt a dance, as you well know" he quickly replied, giving himself a glance around "And besides, you don't really want to do that… _What would people say_?"

The bitterness and the irony in that question didn't go unnoticed. The reference to their last argument was evident and the sense of guilt immediately spread in her; as a response her face gradually softened and her body begun to refuse physical resistance and sway along with his. Only when they started to properly dance in silence, she decided to look at him and as their eyes met at such a proximity they both felt again that intimate connection between them that was never really broken.

As Effie sighed in defeat, Seneca smiled victoriously.

"What happened before? Were you jealous?" he teased suddenly breaking the silence.

Effie widened her eyes and instantly felt her cheeks reddening under the heavy make-up. She opened her mouth to answer for a few times, but nothing came out, until she realized that no remarks or changes of topic could be used.

"Yes I was"

It was barely a whisper, but it was enough to took Seneca by surprise and make him slightly stiffen. He was taken aback by her unusual bluntness and in that moment of wonder, decided that there was no way to exchange that act other than another heart to heart sentence.

"I'm sorry"

The woman looked down for some moments and simply nodded, thoughtfully. But her thoughts, running probably among shared memories, covered and uncovered feelings and the emotion she was currently experiencing dancing now in his arms, inevitably ended up to linger on the brunette she got jealous of.

"What about… Aurelia?" she found herself asking with hesitation and also not so hidden fear.

The head gamemaker frowned for a moment and that simple gesture made the escort relax and a little smile appeared on her lips. It wasn't difficult to guess that he had already forgotten the other woman's name.

"I just want one girl in my life and her name isn't Aurelia" he said at last, staring intently at her and looking now completely serious.

The music had already changed two times in the meanwhile and the couple had attracted more attention, especially since, lost in their conversation, they had lost any sense of rhythm.

"Oh, I'm the one that should apologize, Sen" Effie answered after a while, blinking in attempt to hold the tears that now were actually threatening to fall "I've made a mistake... I was just scared, I wasn't honestly ready to face the rest of the Capitol…"

There was of course the unspoken ever present question "what would people say?", but the only thing in that confession that seemed to have captured Seneca's interest was the use of the past tense.

"You _were_ scared… And now?" he just asked in fact, gently interrupting her "Do you think you could be ready now?"

"I- I… All I know is that I want to be the one to be with you, not some anonymous capitol girl… The fact is even worse because she's not anonymous, she is Aurelia Rowland… Did you know that she's a men-eater? So yes, I think that I may be ready for whatever –"

Effie never finished her answer as Seneca's lips suddenly crashed into hers, giving start to a passionate, hot kiss, one that they were longing for since probably their break up. They parted only for need of air and now the blush on her face was so much to be visible. The reaction of the people to that unexpected show didn't help at all: many had stopped dancing or talking and were now pointing at them, gasping in surprise and some even attempted an applause. Also the camera was entirely focused on them and the worst was that in less than a minute Caesar Flickerman appeared in sight with an excited expression on his face.

"Seneca Crane, the head game maker with Effie Trinket the district 12 escort! What a surprise, who could have guessed!" he exclaimed laughing in a mixture of curiosity, incredulity and thrill, already with a microphone in his hand.

After a moment of shock, Effie quickly regained her composure and just looked back at the man that probably now she had every right to call her own.

"I hate you!" she hissed between her teeth, with a little reassuring glare, earning just a chuckle from him.

And despite everything, she was smiling too now, sincerely.

Because with his hand in hers and the taste of their kiss still on her lips, suddenly it wasn't so important to know _what people would have said._


End file.
